Lola T70
The Lola T70 'was a sports car manufactured from 1965 until 1969. The car was built for sports car racing and was developed by Lola Cars. History It became successful when the driver Walt Hansgen (Mecom Racing Team) won the Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca (October 17, 1965). John Surtees was the champion and Dan Gurney drove the only Ford powered car ever to win a Can-Am race. The T70 was quite popular, with more than 100 examples of the vehicle being built in 3 versions: *'Mk II (Open-roofed) *'Mk III' (Coupé) *'Mk IIIB' (Updated version of the Mk III) In 1970, T70 got replaced with the T160. Technical Details Lola T70 has a monocoque chassis, double-wishbone suspensions with coaxial shock absorbers at springs and disc brakes and an American-made V8 motor. Death of the T70 When the FIA changed the rules for sports car racing that came into effect for 1968, limiting the engine size of prototypes to 3 litres, if at least 50 were made, sportscars with up to 5000cc engines were allowed. This rule allowed the popular yet outdated Ford GT40 and Lola T70s to continue racing. The Fords won Le Mans again in '68 and '69, while the T70's only big endurance win came in the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona where they finished 1 and 2. The winning car was the Sunoco Lola T70-Chevrolet of Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons. When the minimum number was lowered to 25 for 1969, the more modern Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 were homologated (sanctioned), and outran the older Lolas and Fords. Chevrolet powered coupes tended to suffer reliability problems when racing in Europe, in part due to the grade of fuel allowed. When forced to run on commercially available "pump fuel", with a lower octane rating than the "Avgas" permitted under American rules, engine failures were common. In modern historic racing these engines show much improved reliability due to a number of factors: in modern historic racing they use parts unavailable in the '60's, and fuel quality is better than the historically poor fuel supplied by the ACO. An Aston Martin powered coupe was entered by Lola for Le Mans in 1967, Even with drivers such as John Surtees, the T70 Aston Martin was a disaster. The Aston Martin V8 engine failed after short runs. The lack of development was attributed to a lack of funds. During the filming of Steve McQueen's "Le Mans", Lola chassis' were sacrificed, disguised with bodywork from the 917 and 512 that starred in the film. A T70 coupe also appears as a car of the future in George Lucas' first commercial film, THX-1138. Nowadays, T70's are still driven in classic car events like the Classic Endurance Racing series. Replicas A UK company, "Gardner Douglas" produces a car named "T70 Spyder" with styling inspired by the Lola car, and using an aluminium spaceframe chassis with GRP panelling. A US company, "Race Car Replicas" produces an authentic looking replica of both the Spyder and MkIIIB coupe T70 using an aluminium monocoque chassis. A South African Company, "Universal Products" produces a tubular spaceframe-chassis version, clad in aluminium, of the T70 MkIIIB. Gallery DSC03027.JPG|Lola T70 DSC03026.JPG|Lola T70 Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spyder (1966) - Team Surtees. by A. Fraser at the 2015 Goodwood 73MM.jpg|Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spyder (1966) Category:Lola Category:Racecars Category:Post-war